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A group of residents at a South Bend assisted living facility have filed a class-action lawsuit to keep the 116-year-old site open.
Residents of Portage Manor, a facility operated by St. Joseph County since 1907 to house and care for impoverished individuals with physical and mental disabilities, filed the complaint on behalf of themselves and a class of similarly situated persons in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, South Bend Division, on June 26.
The complaint names St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners President Carl Baxmeyer, St. Joseph County Council President Mark Root and St. Joseph County as defendants.
“A consequence of the closing of Portage Manor is that Plaintiffs and the class will be moved to segregated institutions with uncertain capacity and qualifications to care for Plaintiffs and the class, resulting in threats to the health and wellbeing of Plaintiffs and the class,” the complaint states.
According to the complaint, the residents are seeking preliminary and permanent injunctions to enjoin the defendants from closing the facility, transferring residents to other nursing home facilities against their wishes or failing to operate Portage Manor as required by law.
They also seek a declaratory judgment and other equitable relief, which could include the appointment of a master to oversee operation of Portage Manor, damages and attorney fees.
Finally, they are seeking class certification.
The plaintiffs are stating claims under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act, the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment, Article 1, §§ 12 and 23 of the Indiana Constitution and Indiana common law.
St. Joseph County’s board of commissioners and county council announced in February that they would have to close the facility after operating it for decades due to dwindling cash reserves.
“Unfortunately, after three years of investigating and hundreds of thousands of dollars researching various funding mechanisms to continue operations, the Council has come to the very difficult decision that Portage Manor will have to close and residents will be rehoused. Rest assured the St. Joseph County team will be working on finding safe and suitable housing for Portage Manor residents. This will not be a quick process. The County has not identified a specific closure date,” county officials said in a news release addressed to Portage Manor residents, their families and facility employees.
Online court records do not yet list an attorney for the county defendants.
Attorney Kent Hull, representing the Portage Manor residents, sent a June 21 letter to the St. Joseph County commissioners, county officials and Portage Manor’s administrator, alleging the closure would be illegal and advising that, if necessary, his clients would the seek the intervention of the federal courts.
“The urgent reality is this matter is apparent. The residents are vulnerable impoverished individuals with physical or mental disabilities (in some cases both). Neither they nor their families have sufficient resources to pay for appropriate care and services beyond that provided by public programs,” Hull wrote.
The letter concluded by asking the county’s board of commissioners and council to suspend any actions to remove residents and evaluate options to preserve Portage Manor or develop a similar facility in St. Joseph County.
The case is Randy Joseph Nowak, by his guardian Julie Calhoun, et al. v. Carl H. Baxmeyer, as president of the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners, 3:23-cv-00589.
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